As a lot you know I have kind of "lucked" into a dream job, working for my local Triumph dealer...D&D Cycles of Pensacola. Besides getting Sundays and Mondays off, and drinking coffee out on the floor (something I couldn't do working at Sears or the Navy Exchange) I also get to ride different "demo" motorcycles home when I want for a change of pace.
Today I rode the R3 Tourer home, the blue two toned one. Since I already own a pretty "accessoried out" 2007 R3 Classic, I thought I would finally get to ride the 2008 R3T and see if there were any differences.
To make a long story short, the power loss in HP wasn't that noticeable (from 140 down to 106) and neither was the torque (147 up to 154). What I did notice and a few R3T owners have already mentioned this is that the handling for going around corners and "tight" maneuvering was much improved. I even went over some gravel in a parking lot at a local Trike shop and had a lot more confidence in it's handling than mine.
I did take some side by side photos of the two bikes at my home and on one picture I noticed that the R3T was narrower than mine with the different bags, but my bags (Corbins) have not hindered my travels and was wondering why Triumph made the hard bags on the R3T so "small" as ones that would be as wide as my Corbins woujld have make the cargo carrying capacity of the new bike a lot more "travel friendly"
These photos are now posted in my photo album and no comments on my oil tank close up of my new 140 cubic inches embellisher...I know I need to wash my Classic up in the next day or so.
One other thing I really liked the seat, I believe it is a lot more comfortable than my present seat...wish there was a way to put that seat on my bike. And it was a little different to look down further for my speed (since the gage "pod" is on the gas tank) than the current handlebar gage arrangement on my 2007.
Dennis